The committee has taken an important decision regarding the rules about eligibility for winning the Club’s major annual competition trophies, namely the Club Championship and Plate, the Howell Trophy, the Charity Shield and the Handicap event for the Gilling Cup.

It has been decided that to be eligible to win these trophies then both the partners in a pairing must have played in ordinary club evenings, that is pairs or teams, at least 6 times in the 12 months before the first round of the competition. For instance, the Club Championship qualifier is on the 19th November 2012 with the final the following week and to win that trophy or the associated Plate, a member must have attended 6 times in the year ending 19th November 2012. Evenings where the club participates in external events such as the SimPairs will not count towards the 6 times. We want to stress that anybody can take part in any competition, and indeed all are welcome at all times, but the new rules mean that those people who have not achieved the new required level of attendance will play ‘without standing’.

The qualifying round for the Championship will be held on the nominated evening and will be open to all and generally the top 10 pairs will go through to the final.

The Competition itself will also be held on the nominated evening but only those members who are eligible under the rules for major competitions shall be deemed to be able to win the Championship or Plate. It will be a single-winner Howell event with the winners being awarded the Club Championship Trophy and runners up awarded the Club Plate. If there is a tie for either place the winner will be the pair with the best results on the boards they played against each other, or if still equal, the pair with most tops. Master points will be awarded in accordance with EBU rules. Numbers permitting, we would hope to run 2 separate events ie one for the Championship and one for the Plate.

The Gilling Cup is played as a single winner movement (Howell) and the actual results are uploaded to the EBU as usual. The individual scores are then adjusted (handicapped) to reflect the players NGS grading thereby giving all players an equal chance of winning the event.